'I died because of you, brother,' Aya's voice resonated hauntingly.
'Arlo, we are no more because of you,' echoed the voices of a hundred children, their eyes blurred with tears.
'Why are you alive when we had to die? You handed over our father's report to The Council.'
A boy, a mirror image of a younger Arlo, stepped forward from the crowd, his voice choked with emotion,
'Why did my sister have to die because of you?'
---
"Ayyyaaaa!"
Arlo woke up with a start, finding himself under the shelter of the Sherman tree. Confused about how he got there, he noticed a trail of blood, evidence of his unconscious crawl to the tree.
His head throbbed as memories surged back, overwhelming him. Tears welled up in his eyes, spilling over unchecked.
"I'm not the person I used to be. I'm weak. No matter how hard I try, I can't conquer this dungeon."
Arlo collapsed to his knees in defeat. He opened the system window and navigated to the Save Data menu. Hoping to escape back to his room, he clicked on the option, but the display countered,
[Not allowed to exit until your quest is over].
Despair washed over Arlo as he repeatedly clicked on the Save Data option, hoping it would grant him an exit. As he continued clicking, a sudden realization dawned on him.
"I still have two lives left. If I die, maybe I'll be sent back to my world."
Arlo considered various ways to end his life within the dungeon, from being mauled by stone lions to dying of starvation or heat. But the most straightforward option was to be killed by the black crocodile.
With his mind on the brink of collapse, Arlo headed towards the lake. He began to hallucinate, hearing Aya's voice and seeing blurry visions.
'Will you stand by and do nothing, just like before?'
Aya's voice echoed around him as she materialized before him, surrounded by an aura of darkness and blood erupting from the ground.
Bloody hands reached out, slowly pulling at her leg, dragging her into the bloody abyss.
Arlo moved towards Aya on the blood-soaked ground, the trees around them weeping blood onto their trunks and branches. As he reached her, he embraced Aya as she sobbed,
'Brother, why did you have to kill me?'
Tears of blood streamed down Arlo's face as he apologized,
"I'm sorry, Aya. I'm a parasite, draining the life out of people. I'm sorry I killed you, I'm sorry I killed all the kids, I'm sorry you lost your father."
"Are you giving up, brother?" Aya's voice, soft as a melody, rang in his ears.
"Yes, Aya, I give up. I gave up on life a long time ago. I'm just a walking corpse now."
As Arlo wept, bloody hands swiftly pulled Aya into the ground. He stumbled, crying out, "Aya, Aya!"
Soon, the blood formed a dome around him, with a single word echoing inside,
'Are you giving up?'
'Are you giving up?'
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm giving up. I can't take it anymore. I want this to end." Arlo covered his ears and let out a heart-wrenching cry.
"DING!"
A prompt window materialized before him, displaying:
[Are you giving up?
Is this too much for you?
Yes 2. No]
Arlo was puzzled, "What is this?"
Thinking it would transport him back to his world, Arlo clicked 'Yes' and followed the displayed prompt.
[A new tab created in the Options menu]
[Difficulty Mode:
Easy
Medium
Hard
Impossible]
[Calibrating Player into appropriate level
---
Creating new level
Noobie]
[Adjusting Player level to the world
---
Dungeon Redesign complete]
Arlo was at a loss as the bloody dome began to disperse and the blood seeped into the ground.
He found himself under the Sherman Tree once again.
Arlo gasped in shock. This time, he noticed that the Sherman tree was at eye level, and all the pine trees were just a few centimeters above the ground. The drastic change in perspective left him bewildered.
"What's happening?"
Arlo was puzzled and opened the window, noticing the difficulty mode set to Noobie.
Just moments ago, he was at his breaking point, attempting to kill himself to escape the dungeon. Now, he felt a glimmer of hope of finishing it.
Arlo walked toward 'The Den Of Supreme Lion', he saw a stone lion standing guard at the exit of Haven. He equipped his shield, hesitated slightly, then stepped outside.
As soon as the stone lion saw Arlo, it pounced on him. Arlo clenched his fist to create a force field.
"What the…"
The stone lions seemed far slower than before, moving in slow motion. As a stone lion hit his shield, it crumbled into sand.
"Holy shit! The difficulty mode really changed to Noobie." A prompt displayed,
[Defeated Common Class Stone Lion]
[Exp Reward: 1]
[Current: Level - 1 (89 Exp to Level 2)].
"Ha…Ha…"
Arlo laughed, a sense of joy he hadn't felt in the past ten years washing over him.
Arlo grinned, clenched his fist, and declared,
"You stone lions, I'm coming for you all."
[End of Chapter]